T Rithik Reddy has just finished his MBBS. The 22-year-old from Vikarabad in Telangana is probably the youngest of the over 9,850 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who will elect the next Congress president on October 17. Rithik, whose father is a former MLA, is excited at playing a role in the contest between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, the two contenders for the post. In Villupuram, in Tamil Nadu, Vinod Kumar, who will turn 24 next month, is equally thrilled. An MA in history, his journey in politics began as a student activist when he was an undergraduate. He is not from a political family, but became a PCC delegate because he had enrolled 1,295 members during the party’s membership drive. Incidentally, the president of the Villupuram North District unit, R P Ramesh, enrolled the highest number of members — 4,736 — in the state. Rithik’s school friend, Sai Reddy, 23, is also a delegate. His grandfather Chittem Narsi Reddy, a three-time MLA and two-time MLC, and his father C Venkateshwar Reddy were killed in a Naxal attack in 2005. After completing his MBA, Sai took over his family’s construction business. He joined the Congress in 2018, and is now a delegate from Narayanpet block of Telangana, where his family holds sway over local politics. While Rithik, Vinod and Sai are excited at their first opportunity, former Karnataka Speaker Kogodu Thimmappa has seen two contests for the post of Congress president in the past – in 1996, when veterans Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot challenged Sitaram Kesri; and in 2000, when Jitendra Prasada faced off with Sonia Gandhi. At 90, Thimmappa is the oldest of the delegates – just two weeks elder to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also a delegate. The Indian Express reviewed the list of PCC delegates who will vote to choose between Kharge and Tharoor at the 67 booths across the states and at the AICC headquarters in Delhi. The list, with contact details of the delegates, has been shared with both the candidates by the party's central election authority headed by Madhusudan Mistry. Of the total delegates, 30 per cent are below the age of 45 years, 46 per cent between 45 and 65 years, and 24 percent above 65 years. As in electoral politics, the men outnumber women by a ratio of 3 to 1. Seventy two per cent of the total delegates are men. With a little over 1,100 delegates, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of delegates, followed by Maharashtra (combined with Mumbai, which has a regional Congress committee), West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha. While Maharashtra and Mumbai together have a little over 800 delegates, West Bengal has about 740, Tamil Nadu 700, Bihar 600 and Madhya Pradesh 500. The number of delegates is decided according to the number of block committees. Roughly, the Congress has two block committees for every assembly constituency. India has 4,100 assembly constituencies. In some states, the party has more than two block committees in an assembly constituency. Each block committee elects/ selects one delegate each. In some cases, two delegates are elected/selected from a block committee. Then there are ex-officio members, like MPs, MLAs, CWC members and AICC general secretaries. Some of the MPs are selected as delegates from the block committees too. For instance, Rahul Gandhi is a delegate from a block committee in Amethi. Congress president Sonia Gandhi too is a delegate from Uttar Pradesh. In most cases, the block committee selects the most influential member/ leader of the booth as the delegate. Rithik, for instance, is the son of T Rammohan Reddy, a former MLA and president of the district party unit in Vikarabad. His family runs a chain of educational institutions, including a medical college. Barring the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the delegates were picked by consensus. Mistry said the CEA cannot do much if there is no demand for an election. The CEA’s argument is that if the members of the block committee decide to pick a delegate through consensus, the CEA cannot insist on an election. “Election will be held only when there is a demand for one,” he said. Unlike previous years, the Congress membership drive, held in the run-up to organisational elections, was partly digital this time. And it was decided that those who enrolled the most number of members would stand a chance to become a delegate. Of the 6 crore members that the Congress claims to have enrolled, 2.6 crore were added through the digital drive. When contacted, AICC data analytics department chairman Praveen Chakravarty said: “Media commentators use big phrases such as inner party democracy and so on. Very few truly understand and appreciate the difficult plumbing that is needed to achieve this. The Congress party has a constitutional method of forming an electoral college up from the block level. It has been nine months of painstaking efforts, led by CEA chairman Madhusudhan Mistry to come to this stage of a proper electoral college with QR coded identity cards for each voter and an election for the president. There is a healthy campaign and party workers are being engaged and wooed, which is a first. It has energised and revitalised the party rank and file. Rahul Gandhi has been advocating this for a long time." As the polling date nears, both Kharge and Tharoor are reaching out to the delegates. Rithik, a delegate of the Pargi block committee in Telangana, said he was undecided on who to vote for. “I am still thinking. Both are really deserving candidates. It is a tough choice. But whoever wins. I hope they do the best,” he told The Indian Express. He said he had received a couple of telephone calls from both the campaign teams. “I really feel privileged…lucky. It is a first-time experience. It feels great to be a part of it,” said Sai. “Khargeji is a tall leader with vast experience. He is a nine-time MLA, two-time Lok Sabha MP and now a Rajya Sabha MP. He is a great leader. Tharoor is an intellectual. The way he talks, he encourages the youth…most of them follow him. He has his own brand. So it is a difficult choice,” he said.
